Sept 3, 2013 - Guzman's Meth route begins Asia (ABC new April 2013)

The Sinaloa Cartel, the criminal organization headed by Mexican kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, controls a lucrative synthetic drug trade and money laundering route that begins in Asia Pacific and travels through Mexico to the United States, according to a new study.
Guzmán's drug trafficking organization accounts for 80 percent of the U.S. meth trade and is a key player in both the legal and illegal global economy, writes José Luis León, a researcher for Mexico's Autonomous Metropolitan University who wrote the section on the meth trade in the study. Called "Methamphetamine Traffic: Asia-Mexico-United States," the study was published this week by Seguridad con Democracia, a Mexican think tank that focuses on security issues.
"This organization is a truly global enterprise," León wrote, "for both its markets and its products exhibit a high degree of diversification. North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia stand out among its markets. Marijuana, cocaine, opiates, and methamphetamines are prominent among its products."
According to the study, the growing involvement of the Sinaloa cartel with methamphetamines and the Asia-Pacific region dates back to the 1990s. During that period, Guzmán's lieutenant, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, consolidated an extensive ring to import ephedrine and pseudoephedrine -- two drug precursors used in producing crystal meth -- from China, Thailand and India. Coronel, also known as the "King of meth," then used the organization's networks to distribute free samples throughout the U.S., establishing a market that has seemingly contributed to the gradual decrease of meth production in America.
"Thanks to the penetration of Mexican cartels in this market, the number of local meth labs seized [in the U.S.] went down from 10,212 to 5,846 between 2003 and 2006," the study said. Other Mexican cartels like the Zetas and the Colima cartel are also important players in the meth market.
The study found that ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are the starting point of the triangular money route that starts in the Asia Pacific region. These two types of drugs, which were banned in Mexico in 2008, arrive illegally from Asia at the ports of Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo in Mexico, or at Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala. From there, they are moved to labs in the states of Michoacán, Jalisco, Sonora and Sinaloa, where they are processed in order to produce methamphetamines.
Tons of meth are then shipped to the U.S. through ever more creative methods and sold across America. The money obtained from those sales is later sent to China or laundered through fiscal paradises like the Cayman Islands, León writes in the study, citing information from Stratfor, a global intelligence firm. In China, the money is used to buy more drug precursors and to acquire domestic appliances and other appealing goods, which are then legally shipped and sold in Mexico.
This global drug network is a serious security threat to all the countries it touches, León concluded. The cartel's reach in the United States, for instance, is so great that El Chapo was recently billed "public enemy number one" by a Chicago security organization concerned with the impact that the drug trade is having in that city.
León also wrote that the "chain" which links Asian drug precursors, Mexican labs and U.S. meth consumers makes up a "dynamic" business model in which the Sinaloa Cartel rakes in massive profits. The RAND Corporation a U.S. Think Tank, estimates that this cartel makes up to 3 billion dollars per year, from trafficking marijuana, cocaine and meth, which is as much as the income as digital companies like Facebook and Netflix. El Chapo even made Forbes' list of the world's billionaires four years in a row, the last being in 2012.

Sept 3 2013 - Cartel; Guzman/mex. largest producer meth via Kansas City (Kansas City Star)

Mexican meth flows into the Kansas City area

By TONY RIZZO The Kansas City Star

Updated: 2013-08-18T21:20:38Z

August 17

By TONY RIZZO

The Kansas City Star

                

Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman

 

But that moniker and his diminutive stature belie the place Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman holds at the pinnacle of a criminal enterprise that stretches from Asia through Mexico and into Kansas City and other U.S. locations.
Guzman leads the Mexican drug cartel responsible for 80 percent of the methamphetamine now distributed in the United States, according to Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials.
While Mexican criminal organizations like Guzman’s have long trafficked in cocaine and marijuana, their pre-eminence in the methamphetamine market has only come in recent years as an unintended consequence of the crackdown in the United States on the availability of the ingredients used by home meth cooks, officials say.
“They’re businessmen,” said Sgt. Chris Cesena of the Kansas City Police Department’s drug enforcement unit. “Where there’s demand, they’re going to keep the supply up.”
The Mexican cartels are importing a much purer, cheaper and potentially more addictive form of the drug, and in much larger quantities than the small-scale domestic lab operators who once proliferated.
But so far the violence taking place in Mexico as the cartels battle among themselves has not been exported north of the border.
“We haven’t seen that up here,” said Cesena. “Up here it’s all about making money.”
In recent weeks, law enforcement officers in the Kansas City area have encountered that cartel connection in a big way with seizures and arrests in several large-scale trafficking operations.
Earlier this month, Lawrence police announced the largest meth seizure in Douglas County history — nearly 25 pounds of the drug with a street value of about $1 million.
Because the investigation that led to the seizure is ongoing, police are sharing few details, but Lawrence police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley said investigators think the drugs came from Mexico.
“It’s obviously here,” McKinley said of the Mexican cartel connection.
Officials say the turnover in the nature of the meth trade is reflected in these facts: The number of meth lab seizures in the United States has decreased, but the amount of the drug being seized along the border with Mexico has increased.
According to U.S. federal law enforcement statistics, 2,400 kilograms of meth were seized at the Mexican border in 2004. That same year the DEA reported 23,828 “incidents” involving the discovery of domestic meth labs, dump sites or meth-making equipment.
Last year the number of domestic meth incidents decreased to 11,200, while nearly 6,000 kilograms were seized at the border.
Tammy Dickinson, a former assistant prosecutor in Jackson County and now the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, has seen the change in area courtrooms.
“At the state level in the mid-2000s, we were seeing hundreds of meth labs each year,” Dickinson said. “Labs here have really diminished to nothing. The large quantities being seized are all from Mexico.”
No charges have yet been filed in the Lawrence case, but on Wednesday a Mexican citizen living in the Kansas City area, described in court documents as a “large-scale methamphetamine and cocaine trafficker,” appeared in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, where he is charged in an unrelated case with conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine.
The case against Eric Rangel-Ortega alleges multiple drug sales in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., that were facilitated by Rangel-Ortega from outside the country. At Wednesday’s hearing, a judge ordered him held without bond as the case is pending.
“Rangel-Ortega has the ability to illegally travel back and forth between the United States and Mexico without detection,” federal agents wrote in the affidavit outlining the allegations. “While in Mexico, Rangel-Ortega directed others to distribute narcotics on his behalf and send him the proceeds in Mexico.”
Cesena said Rangel-Ortega and his confederates were trafficking in methamphetamine and cocaine. One of Rangel-Ortega’s alleged confederates was charged April 19 after a large drug shipment was delivered to him in Kansas City, Kan. The gray Honda Odyssey with Mexican license tags that was used to deliver the drugs crossed the border into Texas on April 16.
After delivering the shipment, the vehicle was heading back toward Mexico when it was stopped on Interstate 35 by Kansas Highway Patrol troopers. Inside the vehicle was $330,000 in cash, according to court documents.
While authorities haven’t said whether they think Rangel-Ortega is specifically affiliated with Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel, three Kansas City men were charged in December in U.S. District Court in St. Louis after a lengthy Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels and their distribution networks.
The three Kansas City men were among seven defendants charged in St. Louis by the DEA with conspiracy, money laundering and possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.
“The Sinaloa and Juarez cartels are responsible for bringing multi-ton quantities of narcotics, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana, from Mexico into the United States,” the DEA said in a statement announcing those arrests. “These cartels are also believed to be responsible for laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds from illegal drug trafficking activities.”
Because of its location along Interstate 35 and Interstate 70, Kansas City is one of the country’s primary conduits for drugs being transported to other parts of the country from the south and west, and for the cash heading back in the opposite direction from larger markets such as Chicago.
The Sinaloa Cartel’s influence in Chicago is so pervasive that earlier this year the Chicago Crime Commission named Guzman the city’s Public Enemy No. 1.
“His agents are working in the Chicago area importing vast quantities of drugs for sale … and collecting and sending to Mexico tens of millions of dollars in drug money,” the crime commission’s president said.
An article published earlier this year by a security-related Mexican think tank described how vast quantities of the precursor drugs used to manufacture meth are illegally imported into Mexico from Asia. Factories in several Mexican states manufacture the drugs, which are then smuggled into the United States. The vast majority enters the country in California, where the traffickers distribute it across the country.
In one recent case, the U.S. Postal Service was used to deliver 7 pounds of methamphetamine to a woman in Topeka. The package was mailed from California. Authorities, tipped off about the shipment, arrested the Topeka woman when she picked up the delivery.
The factory-produced methamphetamine from Mexico often is much purer than that typically seen in domestic meth lab cases, according to law enforcement officials.
In one of the sales Rangel-Ortega allegedly made to undercover officers last fall in Kansas City, testing showed that the methamphetamine was 100 percent pure, according to court documents.
Some think that purity can exacerbate the problems that addicts can have when seeking treatment for the drug.
The number of methamphetamine users seeking treatment in Missouri has been rising in recent years, according to statistics kept by the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
In fiscal 2012, state-run substance abuse treatment programs reported 4,460 admissions. There were 3,729 in fiscal 2010, according to the records.
Judy Chase of the Heartland Center for Behavioral Change in Kansas City said many users think that the purer the drug, the less harmful it is. Because of that, they delay seeking help and suffer more damage to their bodies.
Methamphetamine users can become addicted “fairly quickly,” and besides physical signs such as weight loss and dental problems, users often have psychotic-like symptoms because they go long periods without sleep, she said.
She said the center’s clients say the same thing about the methamphetamine they use: It’s coming from Mexico.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/17/4417695/mexican-meth-flows-into-the-kansas.html#storylink=cpy

Sept 3, 2013 - Mex gov't drug war strategy (Associated Press Aug. 18 2013)

Mexico's new government follows old drug war strategy

Sunday August 18, 2013, 3:39 PM

KATHERINE CORCORAN

Associated Press

Pages: 12> display on one page | Print | E-mail

MEXICO CITY — With the capture of two top drug lords in little more than a month, the new government of President Enrique Pena Nieto is following an old strategy it has openly criticized for causing more violence and crime.
Mario Armando Ramirez Trevino, a top leader of Mexico's Gulf Cartel, was detained Saturday in a military operation near the Texas border, just weeks after the arrest of the leader of the brutal Zetas cartel near another border city, Nuevo Laredo.
Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong came to his post last December saying the strategy of former President Felipe Calderon to focus on cartel leadership only made the drug gangs more dangerous. The new administration, he said, would focus less on leadership and more on reducing violence.
Yet the new strategy appears almost identical to the old. The captures of Ramirez and top Zeta Miguel Angel Trevino Morales could cause a new spike in violence with battles for leadership of Mexico's two major cartels.
"The strategy of the military is exactly the same," Raul Benitez, a security expert at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said Sunday. "It's not a failure of the new government. It's the reality they face ... Changing strategy is a very slow process. In the short term, you have to act against the drug-trafficking leaders."
Ramirez, a drug boss in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, had been vying to take over the cartel since the arrest of the Gulf's top capo, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, alias "El Coss," last September. Some say he succeeded by reportedly killing his main Gulf rival, Miguel Villarreal, known as "Gringo Mike," in a gunbattle in March. Villarreal's death is still disputed by some.
The U.S. State Department also offered a reward of $5 million for the capture of Ramirez for several federal drug violations.
He was taken down during a major military offensive that involved air and ground forces in Rio Bravo, according to the Tamaulipas state government.
The once-powerful Gulf Cartel still controls most of the cocaine and marijuana trafficking through the Matamoros corridor across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and has an international reach into Central America and beyond. But the cartel has been plagued by infighting since Costilla's arrest, while also being under attack in its home territory by its former security arm, the Zetas.
The split is blamed for much of the violence in Reynosa, where there have been regular, public shootouts between Gulf factions and authorities in the last six months. The factions are willing to fight for the largest piece of the lucrative business of transporting illegal drugs to the biggest market, the United States. Mexico continues to be the No. 1 foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamines to the U.S. An estimated 93 percent of South American cocaine headed to the U.S. travels through Mexico, according to 2010 FBI statistics

- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/Mexicos_new_government_follows_old_drug_war_strategy.html#sthash.0mFJNjLr.dpuf

Sept 3, 2013 - Drug agent tortured/killed by Cartel leader sentence overturned Aug 27 2013 (New York Times)

U.S. Officials Return to Pursuit of 1985 Killer of American Agent

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

Published: August 27, 2013

MEXICO CITY — The last time Ralph Villarruel, an American drug agent, saw the notorious drug lord, he said he watched in dismay as the suspect raised a bottle of Champagne from inside a Lear jet, as if to mock the American investigators pursuing him as the plane revved up to flee Mexico.

Enlarge This Image

Mexican Government, Via Associated Press

Rafael Caro Quintero was in a Mexican prison for killing the federal agent Enrique Camarena.

 

 

DEA, via Associated Press

Enrique Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was killed in 1985.

The next time Mr. Villarruel stared hard at his face, the drug lord looked haggard and gray-haired in a newspaper photo but, again, he was slipping away to freedom — and this time perhaps a more enduring one.

“Who dropped the ball?” Mr. Villarruel, now retired, recalled thinking as he gazed at the image accompanying articles on the unexpected release from prison of the kingpin, Rafael Caro Quintero, the mastermind behind the 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of Enrique Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent known as Kiki.

The team of investigators who pursued him decades ago have been reliving a nightmare ever since Mr. Caro Quintero walked free this month from a Mexican prison in the dead of night because his conviction was overturned on a legal technicality.

Now they are working once again to keep the case, which rocked the United States and gave impetus to a range of antidrug programs, in the spotlight, fearful that time has faded memories and resolve.

Mr. Caro Quintero’s release with 12 years left on his 40-year sentence “drove a spike in the heart of Mexican-American bilateral drug enforcement efforts,” the nine previous D.E.A. administrators wrote in a letter last week.

“This incident — the early release of the drug cartel leader responsible for the kidnapping, torture and murder of a federal D.E.A. agent — was particularly outrageous,” it continued, “because it represented a repudiation of the sacrifices that agents on both sides of the border have made for the last four decades.”

They have also begun talking to members of Congress about possible hearings and other steps to keep up pressure on the case, which at the time of Mr. Camarena’s killing sent United States-Mexico relations into a nosedive that it took years to recover from.

Aside from the death of Mr. Camarena, Mr. Caro Quintero was convicted of killing a Mexican pilot who worked with the agent and two other Americans a few months before Mr. Camarena was abducted on Feb. 7, 1985 — John Walker and Albert Radelat, whom he falsely accused of being drug agents after they stumbled into a cantina where he was holding a party. Mr. Caro Quintero was also implicated, but not charged, in the killings of four other Americans.

Two other members of the cartel, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo, who led what was a forerunner of modern drug trafficking organizations, remain imprisoned for the murder and other charges. But Mr. Fonseca’s lawyer has said that he will seek his client’s release on the same grounds as Mr. Caro Quintero.

The investigators say Mr. Caro Quintero was on a rampage against the D.E.A. and anybody he thought was associated with it, because Mr. Camarena had helped uncover an enormous marijuana plantation in 1984, which resulted in a $2 billion loss to his business.

While at one point the United States virtually shut border crossings in the manhunt for Mr. Camarena after he disappeared — his mangled body was found on a remote ranch a few days later — the sense of outrage has been more muted this time, say the D.E.A. agents, who have little patience for diplomatic promises of cooperation from a Mexican government that has been wary of deep American involvement in drug enforcement on its soil.

A senior Obama administration official acknowledged last week that the United States learned of Mr. Caro Quintero’s release only after he was already free, a lapse the official attributed to confusion even within the Mexican government over the judges’ order, which the government has called an error that it will appeal.

“We made clear our deep concern with the way this happened,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The administration has received assurances that Mexico is closely tracking and doing all it can to ensure the other men remain behind bars, the official said. In the meantime, he said, the two countries are working closely together to find Mr. Caro Quintero, now that the United States has issued an arrest warrant and asked that he be detained.

Such assurances hardly mollify the team that investigated the case, a rare attack on a drug agent on foreign soil that exposed the deep level of corruption and collusion among Mexican officials in the drug world.

Top police officials were implicated in the crime and American investigators have long suspected that Mr. Caro Quintero’s ties reached the upper echelons of the Mexican government.

Sept 3, 2013 - Cartel kingpin's wedding to U.S. Citizen(Borderland Beat) May 13, 2013

This Blog

Linked From Here

This Blog

Linked From Here

Chapo's wedding: Boda en Durango

Sunday, May 5, 2013 | Borderland Beat Reporterun vato

Proceso (5-1-13)

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

A few days ago, Ines Coronel Barrera and Omar Coronel Aispuro, Chapo Guzman's father in law and brother in law, respectively, were arrested in Sonora. Proceso recalled an account first published on September 2, 2007, of the wedding of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Emma Coronel Aispuro. I've translated only the portion of the report that narrates the wedding. It's an interesting story. --un vato

...The Deputy Secretary of Standards and Media of the Department of the Interior (Segob), Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez, said that "according to intelligence information, Ines Coronel Barrera is identified as the father of Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Joaquin Guzman Loera, whom she married in 2007 in the town of Angostura, Canelas County, Durango.

In its Edition No. 1609, on September 2, 2007, Proceso published a report titled "Wedding in Durango...and the highest capo was married to Emma I".


There, it tells the peculiar love story of Emma and El Chapo Guzman, which filled with pride her father and mother, Ines Coronel Barrera and Estela Aispuro Aispuro, respectively, both from the town of Angostura.
In its public version, the story began on November 20, 2006. On that day, the city council called on all the young girls to compete in the contest to elect the queen of the 2007 Great Coffee and Guava Festival.
One of the candidates surprised people: Emma, a girl from the remote village of La Angostura, would compete against Baudelia Ayala Coronel, from El Ranchito; Rosa Sandoval Avitia, from the county seat; Alma Diaz Rodriguez, from Zapote and Nancy Herrera Vizcarra, from Mesa de Guadalupe.

From that point on, the five candidates organized events to win sympathizers. Emma invited as many people as she could to the big dance she would hold on January 6, 2007. About this event, the local newspaper, El Correo de la Montana, stated that it gave Emma a sort of "morbid popularity", based on the expectation that El Chapo would be present. There were already rumors -- which later became news -- about a wedding.

The Day of Epiphany came. At 11:00 in the morning, some 200 motorcycles with seating for two riders arrived at Canelas. They carried men with black uniforms and hoods, with submachine guns on their shoulders and large caliber pistols on their belts. Little by little, they spread out to the town's ten entrances, including those used by horsemen. They placed themselves on all the streets.

Then, the members of the band Los Canelos landed on the local air strip aboard five-seat airplanes; their job was to provide the entertainment. But they were also armed with weapons: they showed off pistols with gold grips. Hours later, at 4:30 p.m., six fixed wing aircraft landed . El Chapo descended from one of these.

He wore jeans, jacket, cap and black leather athletic shoes. These had a white stripe. As if it was part of his clothing, he had an AK-47 "cuerno de chivo" assault rifle strapped across his chest and, on his waist, a pistol that matched his clothes.
Behind him, his right hand stepped down from the same airplane; Nacho Coronel, originally from Canelas.

Immediately, the rest of this most wanted drug trafficker's security team was deployed. From three other airplanes descended men wearing green clothing, similar to military uniforms; they were wearing vests and had radios attached to their chests. The operation was more ostentatious than that seen on presidential trips.
The other two airplanes carried the weapons: grenades, cuernos de chivo, submachine guns and handguns. And innumerable cases of whiskey.
Two helicopters began flying over the area; the operation was complete. In the town square, Los Canelos started the dance with Cruzando cerros y arroyos (Crossing Mountains and Streams), the song that El Chapo used to court Emma with.

Cruzando cerros y arroyos /he venido para verte...
(Across mountains and streams /I've come to see you..)

Another verse:

Eres flor, eres hermosa, /eres perfumada rosa /que ha nacido para mi. Acerca tu pecho al mio /y abrazame, que hace frio, /y asi sere mas feliz.
(You're a flower, you are beautiful /you're a perfumed rose /who was born for me. Hold your breast close to mine /and embrace me because it's cold, /and I will be happier.)

The proud girl from Angostura strolled around the town square, mixing with people and properly chaperoned. Her boyfriend's men would clear the way when he wanted to dance. The couple, like the song says, appeared happy.

With all this security, the party should have been a success. Suddenly, from one side of the plaza, a man fired off a round, but El Chapo's guards simply calmed him down. No fighting, those were their orders. That clueless person who tried to take a photograph was simply deprived of his camera. Afterwards, there was only the music and the noise associated with any big town dance.

Of course, Emma's parents were there: Blanca Estela Aispuro Aispuro and Ines Coronel Barrera. In La Angostura, Ines was officially a cattleman, although those who know him know that his real strength is growing marijuana and amapola (opium poppies).

Emma announced her wedding that day and, all during the dance, Coronel Barrera could not hide his pride at being related to such a powerful boss.

There were few, but notorious, people. Some of the attendees say they recognized the former Sinaloa Attorney General, Alfredo Higuera Bernal, and the mayor of Canelas, Francisco Cardenas Gamboa, a PAN loyalist whose term ended August 31 and whose presence was explained with two versions: he was forced to attend, or, he is simply another member of El Chapo's organization.

Sept 2, 2013 - Reposting: Cartel Kingpin Wife gives birth in LA

'El Chapo' Guzman's Wife, Emma Coronel,

Gives Birth In Los Angeles

Drug lord Joaquin Guzman gestures in this June 10, 1993 file photo. Guzman was included in Forbes last list of billionaires. The magazine estimates his worth at $1 billion, number 701 on the list. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

09/27/11 02:43 AM ET Associated Press

 

LOS ANGELES -- The young wife of Mexico's most wanted drug lord has given birth to twin girls at a hospital in northern Los Angeles County, according to a newspaper report.

Coronel, a former beauty queen who holds U.S. citizenship, returned to Mexico after they were born.
Birth certificates listed Coronel as the mother of the girls, but the spaces for the father's name are blank. U.S. law enforcement officials, who tracked her movements even before she traveled to Lancaster, told the Times that Coronel was not arrested because there are no charges against her.
Coronel is believed to be the third or fourth wife of Guzman, the 54-year-old multibillionaire head of Mexico's most powerful drug-trafficking gang, the Sinaloa cartel. The couple married the day she turned 18 at a lavish wedding in the highlands of central Mexico in 2007.
U.S. authorities have placed a $5-million bounty on Guzman head and allege that he and the Sinaloa cartel control the majority of cocaine and marijuana trafficking into the U.S. from Mexico and Colombia.
Guzman reached a new level of fame – or infamy – two years ago when he made Forbes magazine's list of the 67 "World's Most Powerful People." At No. 41, he was just below Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while topping Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – No. 67 – and France's Nicolas Sarkozy – No. 56.

NOTE:  Guzman net worth is estimated in the billions.

Sept 2, 2013 -Sinaloa Cartel: "Kingpin Act" sanctions U.S. Treasury July 2013 (Wall Street Journal)

Jul 30, 2013Risk & Compliance

Treasury Slaps Sanctions on a Sinaloa Cartel-linked Notary

 
The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it placed Kingpin Act sanctions on three people and three businesses linked to a Sinaloa Cartel leader.

By Samuel Rubenfeld

The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it placed Kingpin Act sanctions on three people and three businesses linked to a Sinaloa Cartel leader.

Among those targeted Tuesday by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control was Jose Antonio Nunez Bedoya, a Mexican attorney and notary public who Treasury said creates front companies to help conceal and launder assets on behalf of Ismael Zambada Garcia, who is a Sinaloa leader, as well as members of Zambada Garcia’s family and other cartel leaders.

Nunez Bedoya incorporated two companies, including a day care center, on Zambada’s behalf; they were targeted with sanctions in May 2007. He also notarized real estate purchases by the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, and his second wife, who was placed under sanctions in September 2012.

The companies placed under sanctions Tuesday were Parque Acuatico Los Cascabeles, a water park; Centro Comercial y Habitacional Lomas, a shopping mall; and Rancho Agricola Ganadero Los Mezquites, a cattle ranch, Treasury said.

Nunez Bedoya also incorporated and notarized the companies, Treasury said.

“The Sinaloa Cartel cannot hide behind front companies like a water park or agricultural business,” said Doug Coleman, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge, in a statement. “We are working with OFAC to expose these traffickers’ front companies for what they really are — illegal enterprises that fuel the drug trade, its violence and corruption.”

Treasury also placed sanctions on Tomasa Garcia Rios and Monica Janeth Verdugo Garcia, the wife and daughter of a drug trafficker who was killed in January 2009 by the Mexican military.

They own the water park and the cattle ranch, Treasury said.

Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at Samuel.Rubenfeld@wsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @srubenfeld.

Sept 2, 2013 - Obama: A new Mex emerging May 4, 2013 CNN

'A new Mexico is emerging,' Obama says; speech addresses immigration, education

By Dan Merica and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

updated 8:37 AM EDT, Sat May 4, 2013

Obama 'impressed' by Mexican reform plan

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: President Obama meets with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, regional leaders
• "I see a Mexico that is taking its rightful place in the world," Obama says
• The United States remains committed to reducing the demand for drugs, he says
• A new high-level group to discuss economic cooperation will convene in the fall

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama said Friday he came to Mexico to break down stereotypes between the United States and its neighbor to the south.

Speaking at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, Obama said that too often the relationship between the United States and Mexico is "trapped in old stereotypes," where Mexicans see America as trying to wall itself off from Mexico and Americans see Mexico through the sensational headlines of violence in the war on drugs.

"I have come to Mexico because it is time to put old mindsets aside," Obama said. "It's time to recognize new realities, including the impressive progress in today's Mexico."

He said it is clear that "a new Mexico is emerging," highlighted by a growing economy, a robust democracy and new generation of youth empowered by technology.

"I see a Mexico that is taking its rightful place in the world," he said.

Obama visiting major trade partners

Obama faces reality in Mexico drug war

In a tip of the hat to the overwhelming number of Latinos that helped re-elect Obama in 2012, the president said, "Without the strong support of Latinos, including so many Mexican-Americans, I would not be standing before you today as president of the United States."

Throughout much of Obama's only speech in the country, the president framed two domestic issues in the United States -- guns and immigration -- as issues that affect the daily lives of Mexicans, too.

On immigration, the president appeared confident that immigration reform, an issue Obama says he intends to work closely with the Mexican government on, will be passed.

"I'm optimistic that -- after years of trying -- we are finally going to get it done this year," Obama said after describing his plan as one that strengthens border security, improves legal immigration and "gives millions of undocumented individuals a pathway to earn their citizenship."

And on guns, Obama framed the issue, one the president made a priority after 20 students and six adults were killed at a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, as something that would save both American and Mexican lives.

"We also recognize that most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States," the president said. "I will continue to do everything in my power to pass common sense reforms that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, that can save lives here in Mexico and back home in the United States."

In interviews before the speech, however, most students in the crowd did not mention guns or immigration as issues they hoped the president would discuss. Flanked by American and Mexican flags, students from The American School Foundation in Mexico City put the war on drugs, North Korea and education as higher priorities for them than either immigration reform or guns.

"I hope to hear about his education plans in the U.S., because college is expensive and I'm hoping to study there," said Stephanie Vondell, an 18-year-old senior.

Obama did mention education, telling the students that the United States and Mexico need to "do more together in education so our young people have the knowledge and skills to succeed."

The president also announced plans to encourage 100,000 students from the United States to study in Latin America, including Mexico, each year, and for the same number of Latin American students to come to the United States.

Although many of the students live in Mexico City, an area that has witnessed far fewer incidents of drug-related violence than the north, the war on drugs was not far from most students' minds.

"The biggest thing I want to see is how the U.S. and Mexico are willing to tackle the war on drugs," said Julio Meyer, another 18-year-old senior. "In my point of view, it has not been successful."

On Thursday, at a news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Obama stressed the focus of his trip is the economy, not security and immigration, two issues Obama said often get too much attention when it comes to talking about the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

"We don't want to make this relationship targeted on one single issue," Obama said. "We want to place particular emphasis on the potential in the economic relationship between Mexico and the United States."

But even as Obama and Pena Nieto pushed to shift the tone more toward trade and economics, security issues loomed large over Thursday's meeting.

Pena Nieto said Thursday that his government remains committed to fighting organized crime, but the United States and Mexico must "cooperate on the basis of mutual respect, to be more efficient in our security strategy that we are implementing in Mexico."

Obama stressed that the countries will continue to cooperate closely on security, but he didn't specify how.

"I agreed to continue our close cooperation on security, even as that nature of that close cooperation will evolve," he said.

It's up to the Mexican people, Obama said, "to determine their security structures and how it engages with other nations, including the United States."

High-profile cartel takedowns were a hallmark of former President Felipe Calderon's tenure. Pena Nieto has vowed to take a different approach, focusing more on education problems and social inequality that he says fuel drug violence. The details of his policies are still coming into focus, and analysts say his government has deliberately tried to shift drug violence out of the spotlight.

Before Obama's arrival, a spate of news reports this week on both sides of the border detailed changes in how Mexico cooperates with the United States.

Under the new rules, all U.S. requests for collaboration with Mexican agencies will flow through a single office, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told Mexico's state-run Notimex news agency.

It is a drastic change from recent years, when U.S. agents enjoyed widespread access to their Mexican counterparts.

Critics have expressed concerns that Pena Nieto's government will turn a blind eye to cartels or negotiate with them -- something he repeatedly denied on the campaign trail last year. On Tuesday -- two days before Obama's arrival -- his government arrested the father-in-law of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and one of the country's most-wanted drug lords.

But with the focus on the economy, Pena Nieto said the presidents agreed to create a new high-level group to discuss economic and trade relations between the two nations. The group, which will include Cabinet ministers from both countries and Vice President Joe Biden, will have its first meeting this fall, the Mexican president said.

Imports and exports between the United States and Mexico totaled nearly $500 billion last year, and before Obama's arrival officials on both sides of the border said economic relations would be a focal point during the U.S. president's visit.

Later, he traveled to Costa Rica, where he met with President Laura Chinchilla and other regional leaders.

Obama pledged continued U.S. support to the Central American Regional Security Initiative, saying "with the absence of security," it is very hard to develop economically.

"Problems like narco-trafficking arise when a country is vulnerable because of poverty and institutions not working for people," he said.

"The stronger the economy and institutions for individuals seeking legitimate careers, the less powerful these narco-trafficking operations are going to be."

CNN's Mariano Castillo and Brianna Keilar and CNN en Español's Juan Carlos Lopez and Mario Gonzalez contributed to this report.

Sept; 3, 2013 - Cartels in cattle business (Houston Chronicle 2013)

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department, trying to block an elaborate money-laundering scheme, has announced that two Mexican cattle companies are fronts for drug-trafficking cartels.
The action means that cattle sold by the companies to Texas ranchers after Friday's announcement are subject to seizure by the federal government, said a high-ranking Treasury official who asked not to be named.
"Cattle already purchased and owned before the companies were identified as tied to the drug cartels are not going to suddenly be blocked," the official said.
The Treasury Department plans to inform cattle associations and other groups later this week of the action taken against the Mexican companies, officials said. The Treasury also will provide other information, such as the brands used by the cattle companies linked to the drug cartels.
For now, buyers are expected to practice due diligence when purchasing cattle.
Two Mexican drug cartels were named in the Treasury Department's statement, the Arriola Marquez organization and the Arellano Felix cartel based in Tijuana. The Arriola Marquez group, based in Mexico's Chihuahua state, is linked to Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the department said. Guzman leads one of the factions fighting for control of Nuevo Laredo and its smuggling routes into Texas, officials have said.

Sept 2, 2013 - Amazing personal story border rancher Ed Ashurst (More of Ed and other border rancher stories in upcoming book)

A Cochise County rancher’s view of the border

by Hugh Holub on Aug. 21, 2010, under border issues, mexico, politics, SB 1070

Ed Ashurst is a rancher over in Cochise County which is one of the major smuggling corridors for the Mexican drug cartels.

One cannot grasp the failure of the federal government to secure the border until you’ve gotten out of the cities and been down onto the border ranches. The ranches are Ground Zero in the battle to secure our border.

This is the situation Ed faces…in his own words:

From Ed Ashurst, Cochise County rancher:

I believe story telling to be an art form, certainly verbal record is the oldest form of recording history and recognized by historians worldwide. There is an old adage among those who love to tell a good tale, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” And yet there are times when the truth is even more fantastic than exaggeration. What I write here is the truth, plain and simple.

I reside on, and manage a large cattle ranch in the far southeastern corner of Arizona. I’ve been here for 13 years and in that time frame have become far too familiar with the illegal trafficking in human beings, marijuana and other illicit drugs. Some have called it “the wetback culture” or “America’s border problem”. Lately it’s been taking steroids.

The recent murder of Robert Krentz by an illegal alien has received massive amounts of publicity worldwide. I live on the ranch bordering the Krentz ranch to the east and north. I can see the Krentz home looking out of my front door approximately 10 miles away. The day after Rob’s death I was involved in tracking the outlaw into Mexico. I saw the outlaw’s footprints where he crossed the border fence. I mention this to say I feel that I’m qualified to speak about current border issues.

My home has been broken into twice. My son’s home has been broken into also and between us we have had between twenty and thirty thousand dollars worth of stuff stolen from us including two ranch pick-ups, a four wheeler, 9 firearms (including a loaded AK 47) cash, jewelry all of our credit cards, driver’s license, etc. A guest house here on the ranch has been broken into so many times we quit counting… many times we haven’t even called the Sheriff’s dept. The Cochise County Sheriff’s dept. has no less than fifteen reports on file where I’ve called for assistance dealing with an outlaw illegal alien.

Several months ago, not long after Rob Krentz’s death, Fox news (channel 10 in Phoenix AZ) contacted me and expressed interest in coming down and doing a news story about me and the problems myself and other ranchers in this area have had in recent months with illegal outlaws. To prepare for my interview with Fox, I asked for assistance from six other neighboring ranchers and businessmen. All of these men are prominent men in the community, taxpayers, business owners and individuals who have the best of reputations. Together we made a map of the area which covered from the southeastern corner of AZ going west about 20 miles to the silver creek area, and going north about 30 miles to the area around the towns of Portal, AZ and Rodeo, N.M. On this map we made marks recording violations to United States law committed by illegal aliens. We did not use government statistics (we wouldn’t know how to get them) but recorded incidents that we knew had happened first hand, many of which we had witnessed. We tried to record only the incidents that have happened in the last several years.

The sum total of what we recorded is this:

The arrest or capture of 40 illegal in one bunch – 40 (we didn’t bother with the countless smaller groups)

Loads of Marijuana found and captured – 213

Dangerous encounters with illegal aliens – 132 (assault, burglaries, forced entries, etc.)

Dead illegal aliens found by civilians – 16

High speed vehicle chases between dope haulers and law enforcement – 14

Illegal aliens spotted with firearms – 12

Fires started by illegal aliens – 9

Over 1000, 000 acres burned with the cost to taxpayers of $ 40,000,000. One fire near Portal AZ in June of 2010 cost $10,000,000. to fight (forest Service estimate)

Outlandish incidents – 4

Example: One bachelor in the Portal area was burglarized around 100 times. He finally took all his valuables and put them in a steel vault and welded the door shut. He then moved out of his house into a shed hoping the illegal aliens would leave him alone. They did not and he finally abandoned his property. Another outlandish event was when outlaws stole a brand new Caterpillar motor grader on the Geronimo Trail east of Douglas, AZ and drove south through the border fence never to be seen again. The grader belonged to Cochise County Hwy Dept.

Financial losses to private sector – $100,000,000.00 (losses in real estate value, personal property, etc., losses in wildlife habitat – immeasurable)

Last but certainly not least, the murder of Rob Krentz, which is right in the center of our map.

Let me put this in perspective. The area I’m talking about is an area that covers approximately 17 or 18 townships with only 20 miles being adjacent to the US – Mexico Boundary. Within this area, there is a population of perhaps 600 people, 90% of which reside in Rodeo, N.M. or Portal, AZ, 30 miles or so north of Mexico. No less than 80% of the people in this area have been burglarized or otherwise molested by illegal aliens. This area is about half as big as the Diamond A ranch or Babbitt ranch in northern AZ, both of which I’ve been employed on.

I’m sorry to report that this, in my opinion, is the small part of the story. The Mexican-American border has taken a dramatic change for the worse in the last several years. Those of us who live here see it first hand. As early as February of 1999 Sheriff Larry Dever warned me and others at a town hall meeting at the Apache School that the Sinaloa Cartel was moving into the Douglas-Agua Prieta area (Rob Krentz was at this meeting).

The cities of Nuevo Laredo, Coahila, Cuidad Juarez,Chihuahua, and other border towns south of Texas have been controlled by outlaws for years. There is virtually no law enforcement in those places. The law is the law of the jungle. Until the last two years it seemed that Agua Prieta and Nogales were safer places but that has dramatically changed in recent months.

I am personally acquainted with 2 Mexican men, that I know to be honest and trustworthy, who have been involved first hand with Mexican outlaw terrorist acts. One witnessed first hand an execution of several people in broad daylight in Juarez. Several weeks later his daughter witnessed an assassination in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua no less than fifteen feet from where she stood. The other man is a legal Mexican green card holder (who was employed by the Krentz family for years) whose nephew was murdered by cartel members in Sonora. At night people in Douglas are hearing machine gun fire from Agua Prieta south of the border fence.

The Sinaloa Cartel is now putting a stranglehold on Agua Prieta. No more than 2 months ago 8 armed Mexicans were confronted by 2, U.S. Border Patrol agents north of the International Boundary in southeast Cochise County disguised as Federalies. They were in fact cartel employees armed with assault rifles and automatic pistols. Mexican people that know tell me the situation in Agua Prieta has deteriorated dramatically in recent months. The good people are told to look the other way “or else.” Volumes could be written about this subject alone, but I will move on.

You could ask, “So what does this have to do with us living north of the border fence?” Plenty! The situation on the border isn’t just about a few workers walking north. It has everything to do with big business. Billions of dollars are being made trafficking humans, drugs, and contraband across the International Boundary. The Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Chapo Guzman and others, is reaping huge profits doing business along the border. The average coyote charges $1500 – $2500 to guide an illegal alien north to find work; usually abandoning them a short distance north of the line. A young man willing to pack dope north can make more than a construction worker or a teacher in the U.S. and only work a day or two a week.

This is not all south of the line. I could take you and show you businesses where checks and credit cards are not accepted and where very few customers walk through the door, yet the owners live in the largest mansions in town and drive very expensive cars. Could there be some money laundering going on? There are only two industries of any significance in Douglas, AZ: law enforcement (Douglas has one of the largest Border Patrol stations in America), and the illegal trafficking of drugs, people, etc. across the border. These two industries feed on each other, and the powers that be seem happy with the situation. Crooked politicians look good to the public when they clean up drunk driving and prostitution, until you find they own bars and whore houses south of the line. These things have happened!

But this, in my opinion, is only the beginning. Chapo Guzman who heads up the Sinaloa Cartel is a multibillionaire. This guy and others like him may be cruel and sinister people but they are also very smart businessmen. They are reaping profits off of the largest tax free unregulated business on the planet. They have so much cash they are befuddled what to do with it all. But they are going to figure it out.

There are rumors that Guzman is financing modern, state of the art feedlots and packing houses inMexico with plans to overtake America as the Western hemisphere’s leading beef producer. This is probably only a small part of his plans. Mexico is a nation rich in natural recourses. Petroleum is abundant and the corrupt Mexican government is in control of all of it. Pemex is the only gas station in town. Pemex, because of the incompetent Mexican government, is broke. Chapo Guzman is at war with the Mexican government and has dreams (not unrealistic) of controlling the entire nation. Think of all of Mexico’s natural resources in the control of Chapo Guzman! He already has the most profitable business in the world – selling Marijuana to your next door neighbor. Think what he could do with a tax free unregulated strangle hold on a nation of poor people begging to work for practically nothing.

Do you think that Chapo Guzman and others like him haven’t thought of all of this? Do you think that Guzman isn’t laughing all the way to the bank as he watches the evening news and hears how the American Government proclaims that the situation on the border is under control? What is going on in northern Mexico is capitalism in its rawest form. They have an untaxed unregulated business making huge profits and they have no plans of closing up shop any time soon. We here in the U.S.are overtaxed, overregulated and being smothered by increasingly intrusive government that makes it hard to do business in a successful manner. You don’t have to be rocket scientist to figure this one out.

This has nothing to do with being Republican or Democrat or Latino or White. It has everything to do with being right or wrong. I came from a long line of Democrats. My great uncle was a U.S. Senator for several decades. My grandfather was an attorney, and a Superior Court Judge. I have a 1939 copy of a Time Magazine with his picture when he ran as a Democrat for Congress. The only time in history the U.S deficit was paid off was by a Democrat – Andrew Jackson. John Kennedy announced nearly 50 years ago that America could put a man on the moon and in less than a decade we did it.

I am now a registered Republican, but I’m not a Democrat hater. But, how can the president of the “can do” nation of Andrew Jackson’s and JFK’s party say we can’t seal the border? We conquered Adolph Hitler in World War II, but can’t seal the border? We put a man on the moon but can’t seal a leaking oil well in less than 90 days? While this is going on we tax and regulate American business with a vengeance that stifles the free market system that has made our country great. While Janet Napolitano announces the border is safer than ever, Chapo Guzman and others pack billions of American dollars south to invest in a tax free market with one of the largest cheap labor force on the planet at his disposal!

I challenge you to come to Douglas, AZ and drive east on the Geronimo Trail, or northeast on US Hwy 80 to places on the map like Chiracahua and Apache. Or go to Rodeo and Hatchita, NM. Go and search out the 5 biggest cattle ranches in the Apache, AZ area and ask them what they think. Go to Hidalgo County, N.M. and ask the ranchers and cowboys there what they are seeing and hearing. Ask the people who we do business with what they think of our opinions. I challenge you to ask the prominent people in this area, who work hard and pay taxes if they agree with Barack Obama or Ed Ashurst when it comes to what is really going on near the U.S.-Mexican border. Unlike Obama and others I don’t have to be surrounded by sycophants to make a statement. I purposefully left out the names of those who helped me with my map and the data I collected when preparing for the Fox interview.

In closing I challenge you to look around to see if what I say is the truth. This isn’t about a few Mexicans wandering around looking for a job. This is about American civilization going into a time of tremendous change – a building has foundations and walls, maybe the foundation of our country is still strong, I don’t know, but the walls have certainly fallen down and the keepers of the house are out to lunch.

When you have time, we think you will want to read this. Everyone living in AZ (and elsewhere) should know what is happening near our borders and near our homes.

ED AND OTHER BORDER RANCHER STORIES IN NEW BOOK TO BE OUT IN OCTOBER:DEADLY RISK:  CATTLE RANCHING ON THE MEXICAN BORDER AND OTHER TRUE CATTLE RANCHING STORIES by Nancy Dale 

Sept 1, 2013 - Border Sec/GOP and immigration bill (anonymous sender)

GOP Not Backing Down on Border Security in Immigration Bill

Republicans concede Cornyn’s border bill can’t pass, but they insist something’s needed on security to get their support for reform.

By Chris Frates

Updated: June 13, 2013 | 7:39 p.m.
June 13, 2013 | 6:29 p.m.

Democrats acknowledge some border measure is likely to get into the Senate immigration bill. But not Cornyn's. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Despite publicly rallying around an aggressive plan from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to secure the border, Republicans are privately conceding that staunch Democratic opposition means it likely doesn’t have the votes to pass.
But that doesn’t mean the issue goes down too.
Conservatives still want border-security improvements and are warning Democrats that not getting them could jeopardize the immigration-reform bill. At the very least, they argue, it means Democrats won’t come near the 70 votes some Democrats are both predicting and banking on to force the House into action on immigration.
GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a supporter of Cornyn’s amendment and key architect of the immigration bill, articulated the Republican position best. Asked Wednesday by Sean Hannity if he would oppose the bill if it did not completely secure the border, Rubio hedged, saying, “The thing I’m trying to avoid is all that ultimatum language because I think that undermines what we’re trying to do.”
“If the border-security elements of this bill are not in place, we’re wasting our time. This bill’s not going to pass,” he said. “If that doesn’t get in the bill I’m going to keep working to get it in.”
Already Rubio is working on his own border-security proposal that could sate some of the conservative appetite for tougher border controls. And other Republican senators are huddling behind closed doors to discuss how to tighten up the border.
Even Democrats acknowledge something will likely be added to the bill. “But it won’t be from Cornyn,” a senior Democratic leadership aide said.
Democrats went after Cornyn’s proposal—the first border-security amendment to surface during the debate—fast and hard. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it a “poison pill,” and Sen. Chuck Schumer’s camp essentially called Cornyn a liar for saying that he and the New York Democrat had discussed his amendment.
Simply put, Democrats think Cornyn’s amendment is a pretext to oppose the bill, not an attempt to improve it.
And they aren’t altogether wrong.
If Cornyn’s amendment dies, “that’s all the cover conservatives in border states need to vote against the bill,” said a senior GOP Senate aide.
For his part, Cornyn told his colleagues in a closed-door meeting earlier this week that he’d vote for the immigration bill if his changes were approved.
Republicans are also playing a bit of longball in the face of Democratic reluctance to move the Senate legislation too far to the right—something Cornyn hinted at Wednesday. “My hope would be that we can improve the bill before it goes over to the House, because as you know, ultimately the endgame here is going to be a House-Senate conference committee that will produce the final outcome.”
Indeed, some Republicans see the Senate debate over Cornyn’s measure more as a chance to put down a marker with the aim of getting the amendment picked back up if there are negotiations to reconcile the House and Senate bills.
“Many realize this bill is not going anywhere in the House and are looking to what might work in the conference committee. Something along the lines of the Cornyn amendment could work well,” a Senate GOP aide said.
And while Cornyn’s amendment will likely fail, Republicans are closely watching how many votes it wins among Democrats. The more support they get, the more leverage they think they might have down the road.
In the meantime, the challenge of dealing with border security still looms over the Senate bill.
Get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox. Sign up for National Journal's morning alert, Wake-Up Call, and afternoon newsletter, The Edge. Subscribe here.